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Across the U.S., Massachusetts has ranked as the most supportive state for at-risk individuals amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study published by WalletHub. The study compared the 50 states and District of Columbia in how they have provided three types of coronavirus support: coronavirus relief and medical services; food and housing assistance; and unemployment support. According to the study, these three categories were then evaluated using "17 relevant metrics" and were graded on a 100-point scale-with 100 being the best possible score. These key metrics include a number of different statistics, such as coronavirus relief fund per capita, share of sheltered homeless population and average unemployment weekly benefit. The states were then given a weighted average across all metrics, which equated to the overall score and rank given. Using those metrics, Massachusetts ranked No. 1 among all states and the District of Columbia, for the most coronavirus support given to its residents. The state received a total score of 69.94 out of 100: It ranked first in coronavirus relief and medical services, second in food and housing assistance and third in unemployment support. Among the 17 relevant metrics, Massachusetts had the second-highest unemployment insurance recipiency rate, the third highest share of sheltered homeless population and the fifth highest share of elderly residents served a home-delivered meal. Behind Massachusetts were, in order, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Maine and North Dakota. New York and New Jersey, two states that were hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, ranked 12 and 19 respectively. While Massachusetts ranked No. 1 overall, some other states were ranked higher across the relevant metrics. According to the study, New Hampshire had the highest share of elderly population that was served a home-delivered meal, while Indiana had the lowest share of this metric. The study also ranked each state on coronavirus relief funds per capita. Wyoming, Vermont and Alaska were tied for first in this metric, while New York and Illinois ranked 50 and 51 respectively. Melissa J. DuPont-Reyes, associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M University's School of Public Health, told WalletHub what state residents can do to help their local at-risk population. "Individuals should be writing to their local and state politicians, to request effective allocation of resources/policies to at-risk populations and to demand mail-in voting for the upcoming elections to ensure all have access to safe voting participation," DuPont-Reyes said. "Individuals can also look for volunteer and donation opportunities to local charities and nonprofits who work with at-risk populations; the local food bank is a great start but make sure to maintain all advised safety precautions such as physical distancing, hand washing and mask wearing during any kind of volunteer effort." Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, some states have faced backlash for their lack of support for residents. In early March, homeless people in Las Vegas were forced to sleep in a parking lot after a local shelter temporarily closed. After the city faced criticism, it built an "isolation and quarantine complex," in the same parking lot, providing homeless with tents and beds to sleep on. In Wisconsin, outrage sparked after the state decided to proceed with in-person voting, a decision that created at least seven new coronavirus cases, according to state health officials. The decision to continue the in-person voting was criticized by many, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and two commissioners of the Wisconsin Election Committee, Ann Jacobs and Mark Thomsen. The federal government has also received its fair share of backlash over its response to the virus, with many feeling that President Donald Trump downplayed the virus during the early stages. Some critics also feel that Trump failed to provide adequate testing supplies as well as protective equipment to medical facilities. WalletHub collected data from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Labor and the Council for Community and Economic Research, in order to rank the states. The new coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19, originated in Wuhan, China, but has spread across the U.S., which is currently the virus' epicenter. The U.S. currently has over 1 million confirmed cases and at least 57,266 deaths. On the other hand, over 112,000 Americans have recovered from the virus.

Though President Donald Trump insists on calling it an [invisible enemy," COVID-19 is ever before us and the data increasingly make clear that the South will soon become ground zero for coronavirus deaths. According to a new analysis from Pew's Stateline, the South is poised to see more death and economic loss from COVID-19 than any other region in the country - and not only because so many Republican governors delayed stay-at-home orders, included extreme religious exemptions that allowed large crowds to continue to gather, and now seem poised to reopen everything from beaches to nail salons long before the curve has truly started to flatten. Stateline notes that decades of policies that undercut government programs and left individuals to fend for themselves have led to higher poverty rates, gaping holes in the social safety net and a health care system in which 75 rural hospitals across the region have been shuttered in the last year alone. hough President Donald Trump insists on calling it an [invisible enemy," COVID-19 is ever before us and the data increasingly make clear that the South will soon become ground zero for coronavirus deaths. According to a new analysis from Pew's Stateline, the South is poised to see more death and economic loss from COVID-19 than any other region in the country - and not only because so many Republican governors delayed stay-at-home orders, included extreme religious exemptions that allowed large crowds to continue to gather, and now seem poised to reopen everything from beaches to nail salons long before the curve has truly started to flatten. Stateline notes that decades of policies that undercut government programs and left individuals to fend for themselves have led to higher poverty rates, gaping holes in the social safety net and a health care system in which 75 rural hospitals across the region have been shuttered in the last year alone. The lie of Southern politics for 50 years has been that the poor are to blame for their own poverty. And, according to a study the Poor People`s Campaign conducted in partnership with the Institute for Policy Studies, poverty is most extreme in the places where systemic racism was, and often remains, the greatest. And in the South, systemic racism can be no more explicit than in the voter suppression that targets people of color. The former Confederate states - all of which had been subject to federal supervision after the 1965 Voting Rights Act - have passed voter suppression measures targeting nonwhite voters since the Supreme Court`s 2013 Shelby decision stripped the act of its power to compel those states to submit any voting changes for federal review. In North Carolina, for instance, the state Legislature passed an omnibus bill to suppress votes as soon as the Shelby decision came down. The North Carolina NAACP sued and a federal court found that the bill had targeted African Americans with [near surgical precision" - but the damage was done. People elected as a result of voter suppression passed policies that denied Medicaid expansion, limited unemployment benefits and changed the tax code in ways that exacerbated poverty. Even before 2013, states like Alabama had passed restrictive voter identification bills. But with preclearance requirements removed, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas quickly followed suit, while other states moved to restrict registration or purge voter rolls through [exact match" programs, like the one that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp implemented when he was secretary of state. According to the Brennan Center, this act of voter suppression, implemented mostly over the past decade, is simply a dressed-up version of the early 20th century`s Jim Crow tactics. When we look at a map of states that have actively worked to suppress voter rights since 2010, those states also have extremely high rates of poverty and child poverty, and lack access to affordable health care. Most of those states also refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and many have passed state-level legislation to override a municipality`s power to raise the minimum wage. But while a disproportionate number of black people in the South are poor, in raw numbers, there are more poor white people in the South. And because all poor people either do not have stable homes in which to stay, or cannot afford to stay at home when they are most likely to either be deemed "essential" employees or forced back to work under gubernatorial orders meant to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic, this disease will continue to spread fastest among them. But the virus will not remain a disease of the poor when we insist that they serve our essential needs and provide us our luxuries. Wherever it goes, this pandemic will highlight how poverty - and our willingness to let people remain in it - presents a clear and present danger for all of us. As dire as this situation is, though, it also presents an opportunity for us to consider the policies that got us here. The Southern politicians who have passed laws that hurt most of the people they represent have often gotten away with it by talking about their supposed values and calling themselves [pro-life." But COVID-19 reveals the malignancy of reactionary [traditional values" that simply serve elite interests and corporate profits. In this election year, we must compel Americans to see the pain that this virus is making ever more visible. If Southerners come together - black, white and brown - we have the ability to build a coalition that transforms public life, as we did during Reconstruction and the civil rights movement. Across the South, a 3-5 percent increase in participation of poor Black, white and Latino voters could fundamentally shift the political calculus. If we come together now, we can not only survive this present crisis; we also have the potential to revive the heart of American democracy.

California fish and game officials now have the power to temporarily suspend, restrict, or delay recreational fishing to protect public health threats associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously Wednesday on an emergency regulation that gives the state Department of Fish and Wildlife authority to act on fishing seasons. The rule expires May 31. The authority is for specific areas, not statewide, and decisions will be in consultation with local and tribal public health officials, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham said. Any changes to fishing rules must be posted online daily by 7 p.m., under the regulation. [This is going to be a very surgical approach if we take it," Fish and Game Commission President Eric Sklar said. Mask purchase link `Fishmas` Season The vote was prompted by three Eastern California counties bordering Nevada that sought delays in their trout season, which begins April 25 and is referred to by some as Fishmas. The rural counties that requested help from state officials have small medical facilities, if at all. Campgrounds, hotels, RV parking areas, and many services that tourists would use are closed, meaning visitors will have few resources, they said. One of the counties, Alpine, has no hospital and one confirmed Covid-19 case that`s related to travel, county Health and Human Services Director Nichole Williamson said. [We have no evidence of community transmission, and we`d like to keep it that way," she said. Oregon wildlife officials closed recreational hunting, fishing, crabbing, and clamming to non-residents on April 10 over similar concerns. Fishing groups supported the California measure as long as it was prompted by local requests and was temporary. But they cautioned that it could move fishing outings to other areas. [We are concerned about a pressure shift," said Mark Smith, a lobbyist for Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen`s Association. Others said the move violated state law and prevented people from catching food in a time when store shelves are bare. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order March 19 ordering residents to stay home except for essential needs.

Ten nurses at Providence St. John`s Medical Center in Santa Monica have been suspended after refusing to work inside a coronavirus ward without what they deem adequate protective gear. [We told them we`re willing to reuse the same mask all day long and cover it up with a surgical mask, just issue us one mask a shift," said Jack Cline, one of the nurses suspended last week. [That`s all what we`re asking for." The hospital declined this week to specifically comment on the suspensions, citing labor and patient privacy laws, but said, [We are so grateful for the heroic work our nurses perform each day and will not let the actions of a few diminish the appreciation we have for all our nurses and their commitment to our community. ... Saint John`s cherishes its nurses and is taking precautions sanctioned by leading world, national, state and local health agencies to ensure their safety." Three of the nurses have been suspended since Friday, when they learned that a co-worker on the ward had tested positive for the virus and first demanded more protective gear. Buy masks click on the link A source who was not authorized to speak about the situation on the record said Thursday that nurses treating suspected and confirmed coronavirus cases have been instructed by administrations to wear only paper surgical masks in most cases - a protocol that has been authorized by the CDC but that has become increasingly controversial as more health care workers fall sick with the virus. After Cline and colleagues demanded N95 masks, which offer a greater level of protection, the source said management at the facility gave a direct order to the nurses to return to their duties, and threatened to report them to the California Board of Registered Nursing, which handles licensing, for patient abandonment if they refused. Nurses on subsequent shifts Saturday and through the weekend made similar demands to Cline`s, and were also suspended, said the source. In its statement, the hospital said it is [using the same protocols followed by our 51 sister hospitals as well as major academic medical centers across the nation and in our service area." Earlier in the outbreak, the CDC had been recommended that all providers wear N95 masks, but they loosened the guidelines recently, in part to stretch limited supplies nationally. On Wednesday, the Providence health system announced they would begin disinfecting N95 masks so they could be reused to help ease a shortfall. The protocol has been granted emergency authorization by the FDA, according to the hospital system. [Our nurses, providers, respiratory therapists and others working the front lines deserve the best protection possible," said Sylvain Trepanier, chief clinical executive for Providence Southern California, in a statement. The facility declined to say how many staff members at St. John`s were positive, citing patient privacy laws, but said across Providence Southern California`s 11 hospitals, fewer than half a percent of 33,000 employees have contracted the virus. Cline, the suspended nurse, said that on Friday, he refused to enter a patient room without an N95. The patient was suspected of having COVID-19, he said, and multiple doctors, who did get masks, told him not to enter. [I`ve been a nurse for 25 years; I don`t need the CDC to tell me when I need an N95," Cline said. [When I have a patient coughing directly in my face ... I`m not going into that room unless they provide me with one." He said he has been disappointed by Gov. Newsom`s promise that hospitals have all the supplies they need. [I don`t know when we`re going to get them because we need them," he said. [They say we have it, and we don`t." [I`m immune compromised, I`m a diabetic," Cline said. [They`re saying I`m refusing my assignment, I`m not ... It`s not that I`m afraid to go in there, I`m afraid because I don`t have the equipment." Angela Gatdula, also a nurse at St. John`s, said she believes she contracted COVID-19 while treating patients with the virus. Her symptoms earlier this month began with body aches and a cough, and she tested positive last week, she said. She said she felt angry the hospital administration did not give her an N95, though it knew she was treating COVID-19 patients. She was told she would be protected by a surgical mask, she said. [They could`ve done more," she said, her voice breaking. [I don`t want it to be one of our nurses who ends up needing hospitalization, needing ICU admission, possibly even dying." Cline said he believes the hospital has enough N95s, but they are trying to conserve them for a surge. He said some department nurses are getting them and some are not. [I don`t understand their logic," he said. [Unless they`re trying to get rid of the nurses so they can replace them with young, cheaper ones."

A short time ago we expected 2020 to be a `Super Year` for nature. Has that changed? Yes and no. We began 2020 with high expectations, as we felt that nature had finally captured the political imagination as well as the public`s attention. I was among those who were feeling upbeat about the potential to translate this new urgency into ambitious international agreements about biodiversity, climate change, oceans, and more. Unfortunately, the coronavirus outbreak has caused a postponement of the key negotiating conferences needed to reach those deals. But the added time may help us, in a way. With several key conferences rescheduled for 2021, we have additional available time to accelerate our work and ensure that next steps on the environment incorporate the insights we have learned from COVID-19 and support a more sustainable model for the whole of the economy. We also need to act with urgency in the near term to support a coronavirus recovery plan that is informed by this knowledge. We should not rebuild our economy as in the same way as it was abruptly suspended. We need to work around the clock to help make sure that both economic recovery plans and new environmental agreements are well-designed to bring human systems and natural systems in harmony. Is the COVID-19 crisis affecting developing countries differently, in terms of the environment? I am very concerned about how the pandemic will impact the developing countries and small island states where the GEF funds environmental programs and projects. Smallholder farmers, subsistence fishers and miners, slum dwellers, and other vulnerable people risk being very exposed in this crisis – to the virus, and, also to the risks of lost livelihoods, poverty, hunger, lack of education, and more. The entire global supply chain has been affected by this, and the biggest burden will be felt by the weakest link of the value chain. This is a major concern and it will impact our approach to building up the environmental resilience of developing countries. We need to take great care in this time of crisis to support the guardians of nature – the park rangers, community leaders, and others on the frontline working to protect wildlife and nature in rainforests, wetlands, drylands, and coastal communities. We will ensure that relevant GEF-funded projects will continue to enable those heroic individuals to do their important jobs and that the original purposes of environmental projects will not be undermined. Those working to safely manage waste and reduce exposure to dangerous chemicals also need our ongoing support. We will work together to mitigate the pandemic`s knock-on impacts [downstream" in waterways, protected areas, and other vital areas. Click to view epidemic prevention products What kind of partnerships do we need to succeed in this effort? COVID-19 strengthens our case for transformative systems change; to make sure human systems are in harmony with natural ones. Towards this goal, multi-stakeholder coalitions among governments, both national and sub-national, businesses, civil society, and academia are essential. On our side, the GEF has been promoting those partnership around cities, oceans, and commodity supply chains, as well as the community in the Global Commons Alliance for a larger collective impact across our project portfolio. It is also critically important that we break down silos between disciplines. While scientists had been warning for years about rising risks of zoonotic diseases, the world was largely unprepared for the COVID-19 outbreak. We can and must learn from this. Building on this, we are looking to bring together a new taskforce of scientific experts from across the health and environment disciplines to focus specifically on new steps we can take to prevent infectious diseases and fortify human health as we work to support necessary environmental action. Introducing a stronger public health voice to the table will help us emerge from today`s crisis and avert those ahead.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday plans to give cash payments to adult immigrants living illegally in the state to help them weather the coronavirus crisis. The plan, which would use a mix of taxpayer money and charitable donations from corporations and philanthropists, will give 150,000 adults $500 each during the coronavirus outbreak, the governor said. California has had an estimated 2 million immigrants living in the country illegally. They have not been eligible for the $2.2 trillion stimulus package approved by Congress last month, which pledged cash payments to most Americans while boosting unemployment benefits by $600 per week. [We feel a deep sense of gratitude for people that are in fear of deportations that are still addressing essential needs of tens of millions of Californians," said Newsom, a Democrat, who noted 10 percent of the state's workforce consisted of immigrants living in the country illegally who paid over $2.5 billion in state and local taxes last year. Need to buy masks click on the link Taxpayers would be kicking in $75 million for the money, while a group of charities has committed to raise another $50 million for a total of $125 million. A group of charities already has donated $5.5 million for the fund, including the Emerson Collective, Blue Shield of California Foundation, the California Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and an anonymous donor. Newsom said the money will not be distributed based on income. [Their personal information will not be required to get those support," he added. California has been seen as the most aggressive state in the nation when it came to giving benefits to immigrants living in the country illegally. Last year, California became the first state to give taxpayer-funded health benefits to low-income adults 25 and younger living in the country illegally. This year, Newsom had proposed expanding those benefits to seniors 65 and older. The move by California came as some Democrats in Washington, D.C., have been lobbying to include payments to illegal immigrants in stimulus packages. The $2 trillion stimulus package recently passed by Congress, which President Trump signed into law, is giving small-business loans and assistance in the form of direct payments of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child. The latter has been distributed to people with Social Security numbers. While that included working legal immigrants -- like those in the U.S. on nonimmigrant (temporary) work visas -- with Social Security numbers in order to be able to work legally in the U.S., it did not include people in the country illegally. Meanwhile, Washington`s tourism arm announced that it will include $5 million specifically for illegal immigrants who had been left out of employment benefits and other forms of assistance, The Washington Post reported.

As the spread of the coronavirus appears to be slowing in certain parts of Europe, some nations are cautiously beginning to ease restrictions on business and movement. Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe to announce that it would shut schools, borders and businesses, and fewer than 300 people have died from the virus. Now Danish authorities say that the spread of the virus has been slowed enough that the country can begin to reopen. Elementary schools and day cares will open their doors on Wednesday, but the move has been divisive. As Sidsel Overgaard reports for NPR, concerned parents launched a Facebook group called "My Child Will Not Be A Guinea Pig for COVID-19." That group now has about 40,000 members. The chairman of the Parents Union in Denmark, Signe Nielsen, told Overgaard that she's feeling secure about the situation and will be sending her kids to school this week, but she can understand others' worries. "In Denmark we closed down the community quite fast and it was done by telling people, well, you can die of COVID-19 so people got really, really scared," said Nielsen. "And I think from the reopening point, a lot of parents need more communication about how it's not so unsafe for their children to go back to school. We need to make them feel secure." http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/personal-protection/high-efficiency-isolation-of-adult-protective-mask-57641037.html Click on the link to view the product Government officials say that by sending children back to school, parents can work from home more productively and bolster the economy. In Austria, thousands of shops were allowed to open again on Tuesday. "I am incredibly relieved, both for my colleagues and for myself because it was a very, very long time for us, and above all an uncertain time," Vienna florist Barbara Kugler told Reuters. The country closed schools, restaurants and bars about a month ago, and has seen 384 deaths due to COVID-19. In the neighboring Czech Republic, which has had 161 deaths from the virus, the government is set to reopen stores and restaurants beginning April 20 - but people will still be required to wear masks. Certain shops including hardware stores and bike stores were permitted to reopen last week. Czech Health Minister Adam Vojtěch said Tuesday that the virus' reproductive rate in the country was now less than 1, Reuters reports, meaning a person with the virus infects fewer than one person.

Since their first hotel was established in 1957, the Hyatt Hotels Corporation has continued to grow. In 2020, Hyatt has over 100,000 employees worldwide servicing nearly 900 properties across 20 brands in 60 countries. As part of their corporate responsibility, Hyatt drives change across their value chain to help protect the environment, human rights and animal welfare, and to support inclusion and diversity. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has awarded the company a rating of 100 percent in the HRC Equality Index for more than ten years. Can you tell me a bit about your career? I`ve been cooking for 35 years, the last 18 of which have been in Southeast Asia. Around 2002, I had an opportunity to work at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore, and now I work with all 21 hotels in Southeast Asia. My role is finding new products and managing the day-to-day operations of the hotel kitchen, which are vast. You`ve been a proponent of more sustainable cooking and plant-based products. How did that evolve? Having grown up in Australia, we were very fortunate with our environment and the ingredients available to us. We always had an abundance of food that was the best of the season and at the best value, so I would always have an opportunity to use, enjoy, and eat different ingredients. Vegetables don`t grow overnight so you really need to celebrate what comes out of the ground and not waste it. When I first http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/bamboo-toothbrush/small-green-ecological-bamboo-toothbrush-carbon-brush-hair-57659233.html Click on the link to view the merchandise. started working in kitchens in the 80s, we didn`t have any food waste. People would always say [make sure you use that part up" or [put that in the fridge we can use it later." Now people talk about numbers of up to 40 percent of global production going to waste. What went wrong? We became very entitled. We stopped valuing food that was grown close to home and started to believe that food coming from further afield was better. I suppose we became lazy as business people and waste became acceptable in an industry where you never want to say no to a guest – that is how it starts. How can you influence your customers and get back to a situation where we don`t waste food as much? I run a kitchen where we serve between 4,000 and 5,000 meals a day. That includes finding the most ethical, seasonal, and responsibly sourced ingredients that are ultimately sustainable. The executive chef is the decision-maker for the ingredients that come into a hotel; he or she will make the decision on what to pay for a carrot or a chicken or any produce. It is not about buying the cheapest, it is about buying the best and sometimes the best costs more. The storytelling is the key to it and using social media and letting guests understand where our products come from and why we use them can be very powerful. That creates preference and that is what we want – we want our guests to come back. Can you share your experience with seafood scarcity and your collaboration with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)? We used to have one 20-kg fish coming to the kitchen. Now I get 20 1-kg fish coming in. And at a hotel of this size, the Grand Hyatt Singapore, we use nearly 200 tonnes of seafood a year, so you better make sure you`re using the right product. Our agreement with MSC/WWF guides us on making the right decisions about seafood in our hotels in each market where we operate. We have about 900 hotels and in each one we have an agreement that 15 percent of our seafood must come from the MSC or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), and 35 percent must come from what we call a [responsible source." Responsibly sourced seafood could be from the WWF green list or could be certified by GLOBALG.A.P as good agricultural practice. The cost of sustainable seafood is in decline and sourcing certified sustainable seafood from the ASC or the MSC is getting easier. Seafood was something that we started on and it grew from there; our philosophy in the company is Food. Thoughtfully Sourced. Carefully Served. That requires us to have an understanding of where our ingredients come from and how to serve them. Are there any new initiatives that you are working on? We have been removing what we felt were non-ethical ingredients from our menus. We have a Japanese restaurant, and rather than serve Bluefin tuna, we serve other sustainable options. The biggest item we removed was shark fin back in 2013. We thought we`d have to close the hotel due to lost business, but we were able to offer our guests a better, more sustainable option and both our wedding and Chinese event businesses have never been stronger. The guests were accepting of the change which gave us confidence moving forward. We removed foie gras and soft-shell crab from the hotel, both of which involve inhumane treatment. We removed eel because we don`t have sufficient scientific evidence that they are harvested in a way that protects the animal and the environment. In trying to implement these changes, what were the obstacles? It hasn`t been clear sailing and our business has changed dramatically in the past six weeks because of the coronavirus. We work with multiple organic farmers in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia to grow vegetables on our behalf and we can`t stop production. So we are working and collaborating together with our producers to find a solution. Money shouldn`t be the first thing we consider in this situation. You have had an incredible journey into sustainability over the past 20 years. What is your next ambition? It doesn`t stop. A couple of years ago we eliminated drinking straws from this hotel and as a company we`re removing single-use plastics from all our hotels. I think what`s probably on the radar now is single-use glass. A lot of glass can be recycled, but the majority of it cannot. You bring a branded bottle of still or sparkling water and you put it in the fridge, chill it, and put it on the table. Within half an hour it has been finished, and now it is the operator`s problem to get rid of this bottle. What is the best we can do with how we procure our glass? What can be returned, reused, and sent back again? There are some very engaging companies here that are selling spirits in larger flasks that can be reused and returned so we`re looking at initiatives like that now. How have you been affected by the coronavirus as a business? The coronavirus has had a drastic effect on the hospitality industry in Singapore. People are not traveling so they are not staying in hotels and new social distancing laws in Singapore also mean that people are not dining out. In a situation like this, it is about remaining agile and flexible to adapt to what`s good for our customers and the market. It is also about doing more for our customers with what we have. Because of this, we were able to quickly introduce a suite of takeout items that they can enjoy at home. This includes our $10 meal boxes featuring ten of our best dishes from our restaurants, a selection of freshly baked pizzas with dough that we make in-house, and being one of the first food and beverage establishments in Singapore to offer 1 kg family meal packs. While it is a very difficult time for many, we want to make it easy for everyone by doing the cutting, washing, and cooking for them. We have implemented every measure that we think is appropriate and now it is about leadership, about keeping the team positive and proactive, and communicating and making sure all stakeholders are aware of this; of how the climate has changed, how the rules of business have changed, and we need to react accordingly.

With the serious pollution of the world and the pollution of the sea, the vast majority of these are caused by plastic. Tens of thousands of plastic wastes settle and float in the sea. Poor sea turtles are hurt by these wastes and animals who eat garbage bags by mistake. These garbage are daily necessities that we usually discard, so we call on everyone to use the most environmentally friendly and degradable bamboo and wood daily necessities. They are mainly derived from plant and animal hair. Now even our toothbrush hair uses nylon-free materials and is extracted from plants. Click on the picture to view the goods.

The Covid-19 crisis is exposing how the cracks in the US`s creaking digital infrastructure are potentially putting lives at risk, exclusive research shows. With most of the country on lockdown and millions relying on the internet for work, healthcare, education and shopping, research by M-Lab, an open source project which monitors global internet performance, showed that internet service slowed across the country after the lockdowns. [This is going to kill people," said Sascha Meinrath, co-founder of M-Lab. In late March, most people in 62% of counties across the US did not have the government`s minimum download speed for broadband internet, according to M-Lab. Between February and mid March, when the pandemic was only just beginning to hit the US, there was a 10% increase in how many counties saw download speeds fall below the government standard, representing about one in 10 US counties, M-Lab found http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/personal-protection/high-efficiency-isolation-of-adult-protective-mask-57641037.html Click on the link to view product details Internet service providers (ISPs) have said networks are performing well despite increases in traffic, but the M-Lab analyses of IP address connection speeds found those claims conceal what is happening at an individual level. Advertisement ISPs are failing to meet the US government`s standard for download speed, which impacts uses such as video streaming, for most of their customers, according to M-Lab. In 29.4% of counties, most customers are not getting the government-required upload speed. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says 21 million Americans lack high-speed internet access but other studies have estimated the number at close to 42 million. `One report found 42 million Americans were without internet` Then, there is the wide swath of the country which has no internet at all. The FCC said more than 21.3 million people don`t have any internet access, though many experts think this is an undercount because the FCC`s reporting system is flawed. Broadband Now, a company which helps people find ISPs, said in a February report the number is close to 42 million. Microsoft researchers have pinned the number without access at 163 million Americans. The internet is key to accessing information about the coronavirus. Human Rights Watch said that closing the digital divide was necessary to preserve human rights during the outbreak. People seeking medical care are being told to avoid hospitals and doctors` offices in favor of video or phone calls with their doctors. And while a delayed connection might be irritating in an office video conference, in a healthcare setting, it can lead to worse quality care. In May 2017, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) urged the US government to recognize broadband access as a social determinant to health. [The solutions we have to shelter in place, but carry on, it just doesn`t work," said Meinrath. After looking at the internet connection speeds for individual IP addresses, M-Lab found that more than 50% of customers in 325 US counties stopped getting internet download speeds that met the government definition of broadband between the final two weeks of February and the final two weeks of March. The drop in connectivity is affecting both rural and urban areas with populations already underserved by the medical system or racked with poverty. Bronx county in New York, the poorest of New York City`s five boroughs, has witnessed a sharp drop in broadband speeds. More than 1.41 million people live in the Bronx, a 42.4 sq mile (110 sq km) area, and their median broadband speed dropped 10Mbps – megabits per second. ISPs must also deliver a connection which has a minimum 3Mbps upload speed to meet the FCC standard for broadband. In a household where students are being asked to teleconference their teachers while their parents dip in and out of work meetings on Zoom and other platforms, the upload speed needed is far beyond the 3Mbps minimum. M-Lab found the number of counties which did not reach the government standard for upload speed increased by 4.4% between February and March. Coronavirus: the week explained - sign up for our email newsletter Read more To address that gap, students without access to internet have been forced to roam their home towns looking for open wifi networks. Facing a remote learning crisis, some school districts are paying for their students` internet to make remote learning possible. A school in Texas set up a stationary wifi hotspot in the parking lot of its football stadium where students can park and connect. In Prince George`s county, just east of Washington DC, the school district plans to distribute laptops to students who don`t have a computer at home and pay for internet for students who do not have it. Miami-Dade county public schools have distributed more than 82,000 laptops to students. Meinrath, a professor at Penn State University, experienced this firsthand when his internet [failed miserably" while he was on a teleconference, coincidentally, with network engineers about network capacity. He suspected it was because one of his children was probably teleconferencing with a teacher during his work call. ISPs such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T have noted an increase in traffic but said networks are performing well. These companies are also among the 650 ISPs which have agreed not to terminate service for customers and businesses who are unable to pay their bills because of the economic cost of the coronavirus outbreak as part of the FCC`s [Keep America Connected Pledge". In Congress, the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, included $2bn for schools and libraries to help keep people connected in a draft version of an economic stimulus bill responding to coronavirus, but it was scrubbed out of the final legislation. Instead $200m is being directed to telehealth initiatives and $125m to distance learning. `If you don`t have internet access you`re cut off from society` Gigi Sohn, a former senior staff member at the FCC, said this was far from enough money to meet the broadband needs of people during the coronavirus outbreak. [Congress didn`t take it seriously," said Sohn. People fighting to shrink the digital divide, like Sohn, are concerned the increase in internet use is hitting a nation that already had significant disparities in broadband access. [It`s a shame it`s taken a pandemic for people to realize if you don`t have internet access you`re cut off from participation in society," said Sohn, a distinguished fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy. Sohn, Meinrath and others have testified that the digital divide was exacerbating disparities in the US, but it`s the coronavirus outbreak which has brought these concerns to the forefront. [Now we have something where actually we have no choice but to rely on the connectivity we were told was there, but actually it isn`t," Meinrath said. [Now that`s coming crashing down."

President Donald Trump's grievances with the media and his political opponents took center stage on Monday during the daily White House coronavirus briefing, following a weekend of tough reporting on his administration's handling of the pandemic. "Everything we did was right," Trump told reporters, after playing a campaign-style video defending the White House's response to the crisis. [We were way ahead of schedule," he said, pushing back on a New York Times report detailing delays. "Remember this because the story was a fake. Everything we did I was criticized because I was too early. If I waited longer, if I went way earlier, three months earlier, I would've been criticized." "...I saved tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of lives," he said. Within the briefing's first few minutes, the president called on Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, who used the appearance to reframe comments he made in an interview that aired Sunday in which he suggested there was administration "pushback" to implementing necessary public health policies earlier during the coronavirus pandemic. http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/personal-protection/high-efficiency-filter-mask-isolates-pollution-57640271.html High quality mask click here. "There wasn't anyone saying 'no you shouldn't do this,'" Fauci said, calling his earlier comments a "poor choice of words." "The first and only time that I went in and said we should do mitigation strongly, the response was 'yes, we'll do it,'" he added. Fauci had said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that earlier steps to limit public interaction could have saved lives. "Obviously, if we had, right from the very beginning, shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different," Fauci said in the interview. "But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down." Fauci's remarks come a day after Trump retweeted a call for him to be fired, though the White House earlier on Monday pushed back on the suggestion that the president had considered seeking his removal. With the president standing nearby, Fauci was asked if he had been forced to clarify his remarks. "Everything I do is done voluntarily," Fauci responded. "Please don't even imply that." The president also appeared to state incorrectly that he, rather than governors and local officials, had the authority to order states and cities to end public health measures that have closed businesses and curtailed other activity. "When somebody is the President of the United States, the authority is total," he said. The lack of any new information about the coronavirus task force's response during first half-hour of the briefing, which was focused almost entirely on the president's complaints about tough news coverage and critical remarks by political opponents, prompted networks such as CNN and MSNBC to cut off live coverage of the event during the campaign-style video the White House played. Trump's complaints echoed his response over the weekend on social media slamming reporters, Democrats and other perceived foes over complaints that he was being unfairly criticized for his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The president clashed with reporters several times during the freewheeling briefing. When pressed a CBS reporter to detail what the administration had done to prepare hospitals and ramp up testing between the time the president curtailed travel from China and the first reported coronavirus case in the U.S., the president lashed out. Trump refused to answer or acknowledge the reporter's question, instead calling her "disgraceful" and "fake" several times. "Look, you know you're a fake, your whole network - the way you cover it - is fake," Trump responded. The president also argued with reporters over his claim that he had authority to end public health restrictions that were restricting economic activity, not governors or local officials. "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's gotta be. It's total," Trump said. "And the governors know that." When pushed repeatedly by a CNN reporter on the source for his claim that he had "total authority," he refused to answer her question. "Enough," he said, before turning to another reporter.

While many shoppers stocked up on toilet paper and bottles of water as the coronavirus crisis developed in the Chicago area in recent weeks, others made sure they had enough tortillas to last for a quarantine. The shelves at some Mexican grocery stores have emptied almost immediately after restocking, and long lines have developed outside some tortilla manufacturers in the Chicago area. The demand has continued as social distancing has tightened amid the order to stay at home, but it appears to be from shoppers stocking up on an essential staple of Mexican cuisine, and not because of a drop-off in production. Area tortilla makers report they have kept up regular production, and some makers and retailers have had to limit purchases in some cases. After two days of searching for tortillas in various supermarkets around his neighborhood in south suburban Posen, Daniel Rodriguez last week drove for about an hour to Little Village`s El Milagro Tortilleria, 3050 W. 26th St., hoping to find some. http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/personal-protection/high-efficiency-isolation-of-adult-protective-mask-57641037.html Rodriguez said he was worried that otherwise [things would get worse," and like some of his friends and family, he wouldn`t be able to find tortillas, or at least enough of them, for the next few weeks. [We are used to eating tortillas with almost every meal every day," Rodriguez said in Spanish. The construction worker from Guanajuato, Mexico, a father of two, added that tortillas are considered essential for his family and many other Mexican families in the area. After waiting for more than an hour in line outside of El Milagro, Rodriguez was able to buy three boxes of tortillas. Each box has 40 packs of a dozen tortillas and is sold for $15.54. , El Milagro has been imposing a limit of two to three boxes per customer, based on production and demand. Alfredo Jimenez, a manager at Carniceria Jimenez, a Mexican grocery store in Humboldt Park, was forced to limit customers to five packs each, he said. [It`s not about the money that we make, it`s about forcing people to rationalize," said Jimenez, the brother of the owner of the chain that extends through neighborhoods in Chicago and into the suburbs. [We can sell it all to one person and make the same amount of money, but we want to push people to think about the rest of their community who is also looking for tortillas." Others, however, have opted to sell them on Facebook and Amazon for up to $2 a pack of a dozen tortillas, when the regular retail price ranges from 30 to 50 cents a pack at the grocery store. Amid the pandemic, there are also countless ads of people selling hand-made tortillas. Worse comes to worst, Rodriguez said, he will have to order some tortillas for his family. But for now, he hopes that they`ll get through the stay-at-home order by sharing a good The demand for tortillas and masa harina (corn flour for making tortillas) has increased drastically in the last two weeks, Jimenez said, leaving shelves empty almost immediately after stocking and restocking them throughout the day. For the store he manages in Humboldt Park, he orders 140 boxes, each with 40 packs of 12 tortillas. That`s nearly 6,000 packs, for more than 67,000 tortillas, per day. [People complain about the limit, but we tell them that we must do that to help others also get what they need during these hard times," Jimenez added. And though he said he requested more boxes of tortillas from his carriers, which include El Milagro, Atotonilco and El Popocatepetl Tortilleria - all Chicago-based tortilla manufacturers - most weren`t able to deliver more than their usual number of boxes. [It`s hard to keep up," said Alma Gaytan, a manager at El Popocatepetl Tortilleria, 1854 W. 21st St. [There are tortillas, we will keep producing, but the demand has definitely increased." Gaytan added that the tortilleria she manages plans to continue to produce tortillas and deliver to the stores and restaurants they cater to. Earlier last week the tortilla manufacturer stopped selling tortillas at its manufacturing location with the intent of promoting social distancing, Gaytan said. Over the last couple of weeks, many Chicagoans expressed frustration on social media for the lack of tortillas at large Mexican supermarkets and chain grocery stores in their area. [Anyone else having a hard time finding El Milagro white tortillas? I`ve stopped by a couple Jimenez suggested that the increase in demand for tortillas [shows the strong presence of our Mexican community in Chicago and other parts of Illinois." At the store he manages, getting Maseca, a brand of corn flour used to make tortillas, has also been challenging.

Mass antibody testing is crucial to getting a handle on the scope and severity of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States, since it reveals who has been exposed to the virus that causes the disease, including people who never had noticeable symptoms and people who have recovered and are presumably now immune. But nearly three months after the first confirmed U.S. case was recorded, no jurisdiction in this country has attempted such testing-except for San Miguel County, a rural area of southwestern Colorado where ongoing antibody tests will provide important clues about the prevalence of infection and immunity. United Biomedical, a company based in Hauppage, New York, is collaborating with the local Department of Health and Environment to test all 8,000 or so residents of the county, whose seat and largest city is Telluride, with a population of about 2,500. So far the company has drawn 6,000 blood samples, although analysis has been delayed because of limited laboratory capacity. Of the 986 samples that had been processed as of last week, the health department reports, 955 were negative, eight were positive, and 23 were ambiguous. "An indeterminate or borderline result on the first test indicates that the result produced a 'high-signal flash' which is not enough to produce a positive result," the department explains. "It means that the individual may have been recently exposed to COVID-19 and/or may be in the early stage of producing antibodies." Counting only the positive results, and assuming this initial sample is representative of the county, these findings suggest that something like 0.8 percent of the local population has been infected by the virus. Including the indeterminate results raises the rate to about 3 percent. San Miguel County is sparsely populated, with just 5.7 residents per square mile, and the prevalence of infection is likely to be a lot higher in areas of the country where people are more closely packed together. The population density in Denver, for example, is more than 700 times as high. Compared to San Miguel County, population density is 2,000 times as high in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Miami; 2,300 as high in Boston; 3,000 times as high in San Francisco; and nearly 5,000 times as high in New York City, which by itself accounts for a quarter of the COVID-19 deaths reported in the United States so far. The average population density for the entire country is 94 people per square mile, 16 times the rate in San Miguel County. Applying the low prevalence estimate for San Miguel County to the national population implies something like 2.6 million infections. Applying the high estimate raises that number to nearly 10 million, compared to 418,000 confirmed cases at last count. And whatever the actual prevalence is in San Miguel County, the national average is apt to be substantially higher. http://cnyzdfh.bossgoo.com/personal-protection/high-efficiency-isolation-of-adult-protective-mask-57641037.html Such a wide divergence between the official tallies and the actual number of infections has a dramatic impact on estimates of COVID-19's lethality. If those numbers are off by a factor of six, as suggested by the low estimate for San Miguel County, the crude case fatality rate (CFR) for the United States, currently 3.4 percent, drops to something like 0.5 percent, which would make COVID-19 about five times as deadly as the seasonal flu. If the official count is off by a factor of more than 20, as suggested by the high estimate, the actual fatality rate would be only slightly higher than 0.1 percent, the estimated CFR for the flu. Given the incubation period for COVID-19, which ranges from two to 14 days, some people who are currently infected will die in the coming weeks, raising the number of fatalities. Furthermore, some deaths caused by COVID-19 may go unnoticed, especially if they happen at home and involve people with serious pre-existing medical conditions. But there is also a possibility that deaths are overcounted, since in the current state of heightened awareness people who die after testing positive for COVID-19 are apt to be included in the official numbers, even if they would have died anyway from other ailments. Even allowing for delayed and undocumented deaths, it obviously makes a huge difference whether the overall prevalence of infection in the United States is 0.1 percent, as the official tally improbably suggests; close to 1 percent, as the initial tests indicate for San Miguel County; or several times that figure, as we might surmise based on relative population densities. The fact that we have to speculate about such a vitally important fact based on early results from a single rural county reflects the sad state of our knowledge about COVID-19, which is largely due to a government-engineered testing fiasco.

PARIS - A group of [rich people" who wanted to escape coronavirus confinement in England [by spending it on the French Riviera" had their plans thwarted when police in Marseille swooped on their private jet and ordered them to leave, a source close to the investigation told NBC News. After taking off on Apr. 4 from Farnborough Airport - a privately-run facility tailored towards business clients to the southwest of London - the plane touched down at Marseille`s Provence Airport, which has remained open during the pandemic because it is important for freight. The plane which police believed was Embraer Legacy 500, was met on the tarmac by 10 officers from the Aerial Transport Section of France`s National Gendarmerie and Marseille`s border police patrol, the source said, adding that they found 10 passengers of various nationalities aboard, including three French nationals. Although one stepped forward to say he was an [important man with connections," the source said officers questioned the passengers, who told them they had planned to avoid the coronavirus lockdown currently in place in the U.K. and spend it in sunnier climes on the French Riviera. The passengers said they had rented a private villa for three months in Cannes, a resort town on France`s southern coast which is famed for its international film festival, the police source added. As the questioning continued, three helicopters landed on the tarmac and it became clear they were there to pick up the passengers and take them to their final-destination, the source said. Police warned the owner of helicopter company that it would be breaking the law if it transported the passengers and they took off immediately, the source added. A border police spokesperson confirmed the incident, telling the Agence France Presse: [They were coming for a holiday in Cannes and three helicopters were waiting on the tarmac. We notified them they were not allowed to enter the national territory and they left four hours later." Recommended CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus pandemic: Security Council warned of violent conflict DATA GRAPHICS Graphic: Coronavirus deaths in the U.S., per day The jet and its passengers were also ordered to leave. If they had stayed they would have broken French laws that forbid property rental on French Riviera during the coronavirus pandemic, which Emmanuel Macron`s government extended until Apr. 15. It is expected to be prolonged even further. As they had only been on the airport`s tarmac, no crime had been committed and all the passengers, including the French Nationals could leave, the source close to the investigation told NBC News. The police source added that under normal circumstances [the plane would have returned to Farnborough," but they did not know where it had ended up. [It can go anywhere but France," they added. A spokesperson for Farnborough Airport said it [is a private airport and we do not comment on any customers utilizing our facility or on flights operating from the airport." The British government has advised against all but essential international travel on both commercial and private flights, but it has not banned it. Nancy Ing Nancy Ing is a Paris-based producer. by Taboola Sponsored Stories

camera showed nearly 40 coffins of Coronavirus victims being laid out inside dug out trenches, converted into mass graves in Hart island off New York City. These victims were being given a silent burial. Workers in hazmat outfits were stacking up the coffins inside deep trenches. This site has been normally used for the last 150 years in New York for people with no next of kin or families who cannot afford burials. During normal times, 25 bodies used to be interred on this island once a week, but now the mass graves are being filled up five days a week, with around 24 burials daily. Normally prisoners from Rikers Island, New York`s main jail complex, do the burial job, but because of the pandemic scare, prisoners are not being allowed to come out. Local contractors are doing the burial job. Did anybody ever imagine this nightmarish situation where the world`s biggest financial capital, known as the city of skyscrapers, is now becoming a city of the dead? There are at present more than 5 lakh Coronavirus cases in the US, out of which more than 1.6 lakh cases are in New York City alone. Out of more than 18,000 deaths in the US, New York alone accounts for nearly 8,000. In the last 24 hours, 1,783 people died in the US, and the average comes to 74 deaths in an hour, or one person dying every 50 seconds. One out of five Coronavirus patients in the world is an American, and among those dead, one out of five is an American. Bodies of victims are being taken in refrigerated vans from hospitals to the burial site. Since the number of those dead is increasing, authorities are giving preference to bodies that are unclaimed for the last two weeks. New York till last month used to be the world`s most happening city, a city that never sleeps, and now the silence of graveyard rules the city. My Opinion > Lockdown, social distancing are the only weapons to fight Coronavirus war Lockdown, social distancing are the only weapons to fight Coronavirus war Rajat Sharma | April 11, 2020 akb2910Today let me begin with a scary scenario. Visuals taken by a drone camera showed nearly 40 coffins of Coronavirus victims being laid out inside dug out trenches, converted into mass graves in Hart island off New York City. These victims were being given a silent burial. Workers in hazmat outfits were stacking up the coffins inside deep trenches. This site has been normally used for the last 150 years in New York for people with no next of kin or families who cannot afford burials. During normal times, 25 bodies used to be interred on this island once a week, but now the mass graves are being filled up five days a week, with around 24 burials daily. Normally prisoners from Rikers Island, New York`s main jail complex, do the burial job, but because of the pandemic scare, prisoners are not being allowed to come out. Local contractors are doing the burial job. Did anybody ever imagine this nightmarish situation where the world`s biggest financial capital, known as the city of skyscrapers, is now becoming a city of the dead? There are at present more than 5 lakh Coronavirus cases in the US, out of which more than 1.6 lakh cases are in New York City alone. Out of more than 18,000 deaths in the US, New York alone accounts for nearly 8,000. In the last 24 hours, 1,783 people died in the US, and the average comes to 74 deaths in an hour, or one person dying every 50 seconds. One out of five Coronavirus patients in the world is an American, and among those dead, one out of five is an American. Bodies of victims are being taken in refrigerated vans from hospitals to the burial site. Since the number of those dead is increasing, authorities are giving preference to bodies that are unclaimed for the last two weeks. New York till last month used to be the world`s most happening city, a city that never sleeps, and now the silence of graveyard rules the city. Gone is the typical swagger of US President Donald Trump. He used to brag at his daily press conferences that he was soon going to win the war on Coronavirus, but now the average American rarely trusts his words. Trump had earlier claimed that the situation would ease by Easter, but on Good Friday, the entire nation watched glumly as the Coronavirus figures took a steep climb. The Americans have now realized that it was Trump`s fault in assessing the gravity of the situation correctly. At a time when lockdowns and social distance were the norms in many countries, Trump refrained from doing this. He was more interested in saving the economy instead of saving lives. The results are there for all to see. In India, this brings us again to the need for extending lockdown and strictly enforcing social distancing norms. Punjab and Odisha governments have already extended lockdown till May 1 and April 30 respectively, and the Prime Minister is going to have a detailed discussion with Chief Ministers today and take a call. On Friday, Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh created a scare when he said that [the figures that I have been given by Indian scientists and medical practitioners are that 80 to 85 per cent of India may get infected. If these figures are correct, then they are horrendous figures". India is a nation of 130+ crore people. Forget 80 per cent, even eight per cent of the total population comes to 10.4 crore. Capt Amarinder Singh is however right when he says that if developed countries having the best medical infrastructures like the US, Italy, Spain and France are facing an uphill task, how can India, with its poor medical infrastructure, cope up with the challenge. The biggest hurdles are the super spreaders – a single person infected with Coronavirus spreading the virus among hundreds of people. Near Mohali, in Jawaharpur village, 43-year-old Malkit Singh was found positive, but by the time the test was done, the virus had spread to 32 persons. Now the entire village with 29 homes is completely sealed off. Similarly, a man from Bihar came from Oman with Coronavirus symptoms. He concealed his travel history, and he spread the virus to 23 people in Siwan, which means almost one-third of the total number of 60 virus cases detected in Bihar so far. The key to the fight against Coronavirus is: follow lockdown and social distancing norms fully. There is no other alternative. The sooner we break the virus chains in our localities, towns and villages, the better. There were incidents of attacks of police in Chhindwara (MP) and Bhagalpur (Bihar) on Friday, when police appealed to people not to congregate in mosques and graveyards for the -e-Shab-e-Baraat prayers. Most of the maulanas had appealed to people to offer prayers inside their homes but there are certain sections of people who are unwilling to listen. Most of our Muslim brethren are strictly following lockdown and social distancing norms, but action has to be taken against those who violate the norms. Let us be united in our war against Coronavirus. Ultimately, the people of India will win.

Gorilla tourism in Africa has been suspended, while sanctuaries for other apes, such as orangutans, have closed to the public. It's not known if great apes can contract the virus, but there are growing fears that our closest living relatives might be equally at risk. This week a tiger at Bronx Zoo tested positive for coronavirus. New measures have been put in place to protect big cats and their caregivers. Dr Kirsten Gilardi is chief veterinary officer for Gorilla Doctors, which provides veterinary care to gorillas in the forests of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "We don't know if it's infected mountain gorillas; we have not seen any evidence of that," she said. "But because mountain gorillas are susceptible to human pathogens, we know that they can develop respiratory illness." Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are an endangered species of great ape found only in the forests of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. All three countries have seen human cases of coronavirus, with gorilla tourism currently suspended. The work of vets and rangers who care for wild gorillas continues, but with added precautions. "Much of what we're practicing right now, in terms of social distancing, and self-quarantine, are at the heart of the recommendations for protecting great apes as well," said Dr Gilardi, who is also a veterinary professor at the University of California, Davis. Social distancing Even before the outbreak, people were asked to stay seven metres away from gorillas at all times. New guidance from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) calls for a minimum distance of 10 metres from great apes, with visits by humans reduced to the minimum needed to ensure their safety and health. No person who is ill, or who has been in contact with a sick person in the preceding 14 days, should be allowed near them. Habitat loss and poaching are big threats to the survival of great apes, but viruses are also a concern. Infectious disease is now listed among the top three threats to some great ape groups. Past research has shown that chimps can contract the common cold virus, while the Ebola virus is thought to have killed thousands of chimpanzees and gorillas in Africa. Serge Wich, professor of primate biology at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, said many governments had closed down tourism with great apes, while researchers and sanctuaries were taking extra measures. "We don't know, if they were to get infected, what the health effects would be, but obviously given the health implications for people it's a risk we do not want to take with great apes so these precautions everyone's taking are an important step to try to reduce that risk." Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre on the island of Borneo is one of many sanctuaries for great apes that has closed its doors to the public. Susan Sheward, founder and chairwoman of Orangutan Appeal UK, said: "This disease could be fatal for the already critically endangered orangutan, it is a risk that we cannot afford take. OAUK will do everything it can to make sure that the orangutans at Sepilok stay healthy and safe." There are four types of great apes alive today: gorillas (Africa), bonobos (Africa), orangutans (SE Asia), and chimpanzees (Africa). Humans are closely related to great apes, sharing a common ancestor several million years ago. Related Topics

The Department of Health and Human Services is stepping back from a plan to end support on Friday for community-based coronavirus testing sites around the country. Instead the agency says local authorities can choose whether they want to transition to running the programs themselves or continue with federal oversight and help. The news came after NPR reported yesterday that some local officials were critical of plans to end the program before the pandemic peaks. "The federal government is not abandoning any of the community-based test sites. I want that to be loud and clear," Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health said during a conference call with reporters. Under the community-based testing site program, the federal government supplies expertise, testing materials, protective equipment and lab contracts to local authorities at 41 sites. Giroir says the program has been successful, testing more than 77,000 people so far, mostly health care workers and first responders. He says results show about 20% of those tested were infected with the coronavirus. In suburban Philadelphia, Montgomery County officials said they would have had to close a testing site without federal help. "I'm extremely relieved that HHS has reversed its decision," says Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania. Dean and five other Pennsylvania members of Congress, including Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, signed a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar asking him to reverse the decision. "It was very counterintuitive and would have been detrimental to public health to stop the testing here in Montgomery County," says Dean. HHS and FEMA previously said the plan had always been to end federal help on April 10. They say the program was designed as a stop-gap until states, local governments and hospitals could get their own testing programs running. While many hospitals and other medical facilities do have their own testing sites now, health officials warn there still needs to be more testing to stop the coronavirus from spreading. In Reversal, Federal Support For Coronavirus Testing Sites Continues

A Grimsby primary school teacher has been hailed a local hero for walking five miles every day to make sure disadvantaged children get a decent lunch during the coronavirus lockdown. Every morning, Zane Powles delivers 78 packed lunches to children who qualify for free school meals, each containing a sandwich, a packet of crisps, a biscuit and an apple. The assistant headteacher at Western Primary School says the discomfort of carrying heavy food around the empty streets in his rucksack is nothing compared with the ordeal faced by families forced to stay at home. "It encourages parents to stay in their homes with their children, and keeps everyone safe," he said. The school's executive head, Kim Leach, delivers lunches in her car to children who live further away, in what she describes as a vital service. "I suspect there'll be a fair few of our families that have got very little food," she explained. Four out of 10 of the almost 300 children at Western Primary School are classed as disadvantaged, in an area that has some of the worst deprivation in the country. Mr Powles, a fitness enthusiast and former soldier, uses his daily rounds to check on the welfare of some of the children, while other families appreciate the chance for a quick chat. At every house on his round he leaves the food on the doorstep, knocks on the door, and retreats to the pavement. As her children's lunches were dropped off, Claire Pulfrey was full of praise. "It helps a lot because it means we don't have to go out to the shops all the time to get food in for the kids, so we can keep our families safer," she said. The food and the bags are provided by the school's catering contractor, and deliveries are continuing through what should be the Easter holidays. After three weeks of daily food deliveries, Mr Powles has become something of a legend on the estate - with several colourful posters praising him. One reads "Well done Mr Powles" - while on a nearby garden wall a child's chalked tribute, owing more to enthusiasm than good spelling, says in 18-inch high capital letters: "LEGNED!! MR POWELS" Mr Powles looks slightly embarrassed when asked if he feels like a local hero. "My job is the welfare of children and educating them," he said. "In these times I'm just doing it in a different way."

• South Korea sees continued slowdown • First case found among Yanomami people in Brazil • US and UK suffer highest number of deaths in single day

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